Kano empowers small-scale farmers

No fewer than 100 small-scale farmers in Kano received improved agricultural input to enhance productivity and food security in the state.

The intervention came under the Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP), designed to transform agricultural production and add value to various chains of agribusiness.

The beneficiaries from 44 local government areas of Kano State were supported with 1,564 sprayers, 300 units of improved planter and seeder with a dual role, and 40 units of improved per-boiling kits, among other inputs.

Besides, the small-scale farmers were equipped with farming practices and application of the chemicals to ensure the safety of human health and produce.

Delighted with the intervention, Khadijat Abdullahi, one of the beneficiaries, said the inputs received will further boost her production and enhance her profit margin.

“This empowerment will help me because pests are much in our farms, and we need to rent and pay experts to fumigate our farms before now, but since I now own one spraying machine today, I can now even help more than 10 people around who will just borrow it from me to enjoy this spraying machine,” Abdullahi noted

Adnan Musa Fadil, who also benefited, expressed joy that government intervention would multiply his production. He urged the government to sustain the initiative to enhance food security.

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State Coordinator (KSADP) Ibrahim Garba explained that agricultural input support was part of the core mandate of the Agro-Pastoral project designed to reduce poverty and strengthen food and nutrition security with vulnerable populations in Kano.

Garba added that the five-year intervention funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) with counterpart funding from the Kano State Government has transformed agricultural businesses across all the value chains in the last four years.

Project Coordinator, KSADP/Sasakawa Africa crop component, Abdulrashid Hamisu Mata, emphasized the efforts of the technical partner essentially on extension service delivery and support farmers to access quality inputs and technology.

According to Mata, the project initially targeted to reach out to 450,000 direct beneficiaries, has subsequently widened to capture 477,000 farmers across the 44 LGAs of Kano state.

He revealed that beyond input supply, Sasakawa Africa, currently implementing the crop value chain sub-component of the KSADP project, has largely built the capacity of the beneficiaries in regenerative agriculture and productivity enhancement.

The coordinator added that farmers under the KSADP/Sasakawa agric project were enabled to access good agronomic practices, market-orientated agriculture, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture.